Luffa cylindrica (L.) M. Roem.

• Title

  Luffa cylindrica (L.) M. Roem.

• Authors

  Nathaniel Lord Britton, Frances W. Horne

• Scientific Name

  Luffa cylindrica (L.) M.Roem.

• Description

  Flora Borinqueña Luffa cylindrical Esponja Vegetable Sponge Family Cucurbitaceae Gourd Family Momordica cylindrica Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 1009. 1753. Luffa cylindrica Roemer, Synopses monographicae, Peponiferarum 63. 1846. The Spanish and English names of this climbing vine refer to the curiously fibrous interior of its fruit, which is also called Sponge Cucumber; this is used in washing, or cleansing, in place of animal sponges. The plant is native of the Old World tropics, but has long been cultivated in tropical America, and is occasionally spontaneous from seed in Porto Rico and elsewhere; it is annual in duration, and grows rapidly. The production of these vegetable sponges is a large industry in Japan. The young fruits are sometimes eaten. Luffa (Arabic name) was established as a genus by the French botanist Adanson in 1763; there are about 6 species, all of tropical distribution. They are herbaceous vines, with broad, stalked leaves, and branched tendrils. The flowers are either staminate and sterile, or pistillate and fertile, borne on the same plant (monoecious), the staminate in loose clusters, the pistillate solitary; in both kinds the calyx is 5-lobed and there are 5, separate petals; the staminate have from 3 to 5, perfect stamens, borne on the calyx-tube, with narrow twisted anthers; the pistillate flower has from 3 to 5 imperfect stamens (staminodes), and 1 pistil with a long ovary containing many, horizontal ovules, a columnar style, and a 3-lobed stigma. The fruit is 3-celled, large, dry, cylindric, or oblong, filled with branched fibers, many-seeded, and opens at the top when ripe. Luffa cylindrica may become 6 meters long or longer, its stem smooth, and 5-angled. The long-stalked leaves are ovate-orbicular in outline, roughish, lobed and toothed, heart-shaped at the base, 10 to 25 centimeters broad, the lobes pointed. The clusters of staminate flowers are borne on a stalk from 10 to 15 centimeters long; the stalks of the individual flowers are about 2 centimeters long, or shorter, and jointed near the top; the lobes of the broadly bell-shaped calyx are lance-shaped and longer than its tube; the bright yellow, oblong, wedge-shaped petals are from 2 to 3 centimeters long; the solitary, pistillate flower has a stalk from 2 to 10 centimeters long. The cylindric or spindle-shaped fruit is smooth, ribless, from 10 to 30 centimeters long, the seeds smooth, narrowly winged. Another species, Luffa acutangula, also native of the Old World, is also cultivated, and occasionally spontaneous; it differs from the one here illustrated by having lighter yellow petals, a sharply 10-ribbed, club-shaped fruit, rough and wingless seeds.